Challenging California Search Warrants
When police suspect that evidence of a crime may be found at a certain location, they can ask a judge to issue a California search warrant. If issued, the search warrant allows the cops to search the designated locations and seize any relevant evidence that they find.
But even when a search takes place pursuant to a warrant, that doesn't necessarily mean it will hold up in court. A good criminal defense lawyer looks behind the warrant to see if it was properly issued.
Specifically, police must present evidence to the judge to establish "probable case" before a search warrant can be legally issued. Sometimes the police present false or misleading evidence, or they rely on the word of an unreliable informant, or they fail to tell the judge the whole story (intentionally leaving out the parts that don't support their position).
In these cases, the defense can make motions in court to challenge the search warrant itself. If successful, the warrant gets "quashed" or "traversed" and any evidence seized pursuant to it generally gets thrown out of court.
Challenging a search warrant requires a thorough investigation, careful legal research, and well prepared written and oral arguments to the judge. But if the defense prevails, and evidence gets excluded, this often makes all the difference in the case.
